Bachelor Contestant Confirms She Was Raised in Polygamous Cult

Reality star Keira Maguire is the daughter of a convicted sex offender who had nine wives
- by
marie claire

08 Aug
2016

In a bizarre twist that not even the producers of The Bachelor saw coming, contestant Keira Maguire has been unveiled as the daughter of a cult leader and convicted sex offender who had nine wives and 64 children.

Best known as the “villain” of the current series, Keira today confirmed the truth about her troubled past, shocking the Ten Network and producers of the reality show who had been wrongly informed that her father had died 30 years ago.

Keria’s father was Ian Lowe, a former police constable who later changed his name to Alistah Laishkochav when he became the leader of a polygamous cult in the 1980s, Woman's Day reported. The self-prescribed “spiritual guru” fathered 64 children to nine different wives before he was convicted of 20 child sex offences and one charge of reckless injury in 2000. He died in jail at the time of conviction, aged 71.

In a statement released to marie claire, Keira, a real estate account manager, was determined to distance herself from her father, insisting that she and her mother fled the cult when she was a young child.

Keira Maguire with some of her siblings. Credit: Facebook

“My mother removed my family from that environment when I was five years old, over 25 years ago,” the statement read. “I was brought up by my mother and grandmother in Brisbane in a loving, caring and compassionate household. I had a wonderful childhood and I am extremely grateful to both my mother and grandmother for the upbringing which they provided me and my siblings. Although I have since met and reunited with my family, I have never had a relationship with Alistah Laishkochav. Alistah Laishkochav is not relevant to who I am nor does he define me.”

After escaping the cult with Keira and her five siblings, her mother Michelle established her family in Bells Beach before relocating them to Byron Bay.